Gift cards or prepaid cards value are often given as gifts to others or to oneself. A gift card generally does not have any monetary value until it is sold and activated, at which time a value or amount is associated with the card. Later, when the gift card is used to make a purchase, information stored on a barcode or magnetic stripe of the gift card is used, e.g., indirectly, to identify the amount associated with the gift card.
The ability to purchase digital media items (e.g., music) for use with digital audio and video players allows owners of the digital audio and video players to efficiently download music onto their players. Gift cards or prepaid cards issued for websites that allow digital audio and/or video files to be purchased or otherwise obtained allow an owner of a gift card to use the monetary value of the gift card to purchase desired media items and thus download corresponding digital audio and/or video files. Online stores that allow monetary values associated with gift cards to be redeemed for arbitrary media items associated with digital audio and/or video files include the iTunes® online media store owned and operated by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.
Typically, a possessor of a gift card for use at a online store that sells digital media items, first accesses the online store and identifies a media item that he or she wishes to purchase from a plurality of available media items. When a possessor of a gift card selects a media item to purchase, the account number associated with the gift card may effectively be debited to effectuate the purchase of the media item. In one situation, an account with an online store can established or otherwise replenished by the possessor of the gift card using the value associated with the gift card.
However, if a gift giver wishes to purchase a specific media collection, such as an album, to give as a gift to an owner of a digital audio or video player, the gift giver could purchase a compact disc (CD) for the specific media collection (e.g., album). Alternatively, the gift giver could purchase a gift card for an online store that sells digital media items, and send a note to the gift recipient that the gift card is intended for use to purchase digital media associated with the specific media collection. Gifting the gift recipient with a gift card and a note that instructs the gift recipient to purchase the media collection, however, may not necessarily ensure that the gift recipient actually purchases the specific media collection. The gift recipient is also burdened with the task of locating the specific media collection.
Therefore, what is needed is a method and an apparatus that allows a gift giver to give a gift recipient a particular media collection in a digital, downloadable format.